Fifty years after its storied New York premiere, the composer’s response to the Happening gets a 21st–century staging, directed by Caden Manson (Big Art Group), with a creative team featuring filmmaker A.L. Steiner and sound projectionist Joe Drew. The cast of “Originals”—the word is used to imply a simultaneous sense of authenticity and eccentricity—describes a community of contemporary performance makers, musicians, and artists, whose actions are organized by Stockhausen’s score and accompanied by noted electroacoustic compositions such as Kontakte. Curated by Nick Hallett for Darmstadt: Essential Repertoire. Co-produced by The Kitchen and Goethe-Institut.

About ORIGINALE ORIGINALE (1961) is Karlheinz Stockhausen’s (1928–2007) first, major theatrical work. It centers on an ill-fated performance of his electroacoustic work
Kontakte for piano, percussion, and tape. The pianist, percussionist, and sound projectionist are constantly interrupted by theatrical types, from the lighting engineer in the rigging to an insufferable director. The interruptions grow more outlandish, and the
Kontakte performers eventually join in the fun.

Stockhausen’s score is not much more than a time chart with notations of what happened during the original 1961 performances in Cologne’s
Theater am Dom. The content could vary wildly depending on who was performing, and Stockhausen welcomed latecomers to the production with little idea what they would do onstage. His goal was to showcase original people doing original things, which is why he settled on the title ORIGINALE (Originals).

One of the hallmarks of Stockhausen’s trailblazing career was a stunning consistency of thought. The humor of ORIGINALE is similar to the impish absurdity of the
Faustine Ardoise Sabrina croco Sabrina Faustine nubuck croco Ardoise xIz1FF, and it is this same spirit that pervades Stockhausen’s magnum opus, LICHT (1977-2003). He spent nearly 30 years composing the seven operas of LICHT, and he was fond of summarizing the massive project as “a dance of humor”. In many ways, ORIGINALE is the work that best holds the key to understanding Stockhausen’s later music.
— Joe Drew